NATASHA The Biography of Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood pretty much skipped her childhood and went straight to stardom. She made her first movie at age 6. By the time she died she'd had a lifetime in show biz. Suzanne Finstad seems to have included every detail of that life in this exhaustive biography, going back to her parents' lives in Russia before Natalie was born. Most of the details are intriguing, from the clunky bracelets Wood wore to cover a broken wrist that was never set properly to a minute-by-minute breakdown of the final drunken hours before the beautiful film icon drowned in the "dark water" a gypsy had long ago predicted. Lana Wood, the subject's younger sister, gives an intense, but highly listenable, reading to material that sometimes calls for her to quote herself. Although Finstad comes close to making accusations (not well supported) of foul play in Wood's untimely death, Lana Wood remains objective. She only allows her own emotions to show through at the end--when she cries. Some readers will find themselves crying right along with her. M.C. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]